A global comparison of the climatic niches of urban and native tree populations

Abstract

Aim: Urban macroecology studies can provide important insights into the impacts of climate change and human intervention in ecosystems. Current theory predicts that urban trees are constrained by temperature in very cold climates but not in other climates. Here we predict the climatic niche variables of planted urban tree populations from the realized climatic niche of native populations and explore whether niches are constrained across all temperatures. Location: Global (182 cities across six continents). Time period: Urban tree data: 1980–2016. Native tree data: 1950–2017. Major taxa studied: Two hundred and three tree species. Methods: We used urban tree inventory data and Global Biodiver..